'Grand Theft Auto' could crash when launched online

As the video game 'Grand Theft Auto' prepares to launch online for the first time on Tuesday, its creators warned that gamers could face technical difficulties accessing the game due to unprecedented global demand.

The creators of the video game, Rockstar North, warned gamers that "plenty of issues were bound to occur" when "Grand Theft Auto Online" (GTA Online) -- the online version of the best-selling video game -- is launched online on Tuesday.

Writing on their online blog last week, the creators of the violent crime game series, which launched its latest version late last month, said that they expected "crashes, glitches, crazy bugs, gameplay modes and mechanics that need re-balancing and other surprises" to be among the possible technical problems experienced by gamers when they try to access GTA for the first time online.

"One thing we are already aware of, and are trying to alleviate as fast as we can, is the unanticipated additional pressure on the servers due to a significantly higher number of players than we were anticipating at this point," the blog warned last week ahead of the launch today at 7am ET (12pm London time).

"We are working around the clock to buy and add more servers, but this increased scale is only going to make the first few days even more temperamental than such things usually are…We hope it will all run incredibly smoothly, but please bear with us if it doesn't, and help us fix any and all problems!," the post published last Friday read.

The pressure is certainly on the makers of the game to match the runaway success of the launch of the latest version of the violent crime game franchise, "Grand Theft Auto V," which took $1 billion within three days of going on sale last month, with $800 million of that coming on the first day alone.

Those sales figures made it the fastest ever selling video game, film or entertainment product, By launching it online, the creators of the game hope to expand and "evolve" the game from the single-player model to a wider, multi-player global design where other blockbuster video games, such as "Call of Duty", have gone before them. The move online is part of a larger plan to further monetize on the game's success through the sale of in-game items.

No one at Rockstar North was available for comment when contacted by CNBC Tuesday morning but on its blog Rockstar's said the problems it foresaw were "typical growing pains for an online game."

With the online version, up to 16 players "can enter the world of Los Santos" (where GTA is set) to partake in "open-world crime and chaos" but to access the online version, gamers need to have already purchased the physical version which costs $60.

When launched in September, GTA V met the approval of fans and reviewers but was not without controversy as it allows players to "torture" virtual characters within the story and a man was stabbed in London shortly after purchasing his copy of the game.